Carter lands in Pyongyang for jailed American
Source: Agencies |
August 26, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FORMER US President Jimmy Carter arrived yesterday in the capital of North Korea on a private, humanitarian mission to bring home an American sentenced to eight years' hard labor for trespassing.
A North Korean girl with a red scarf tied around her neck handed Carter flowers and saluted him after he landed at the Pyongyang airport in an unmarked plane, footage aired by TV news agency APTN showed. Carter blew her a kiss before getting into a black stretch Mercedes-Benz.
The rare journey to win the release of 31-year-old Aijalon Gomes of Boston comes a year after another ex-US president, Bill Clinton, traveled to North Korea on a private mission to bring home two American journalists also sentenced to prison for sneaking into the country illegally.
It was unclear whether Carter's trip would include a visit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, but Carter shared a warm handshake with the country's No. 2 official, Kim Yong Nam, before they sat down for talks yesterday.
The talks were "cordial," the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.
Top North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan and No. 2 nuclear official Ri Gun were among officials on hand to welcome Carter, according to APTN.
Senior US officials said Carter was not representing the US government but was on a private mission.
North Korea had agreed to release Gomes, who was believed to be in ailing health, to Carter if the ex-president paid a visit, a senior US official said. Carter was expected to spend one night in North Korea and return home with Gomes today.
Carter visited the communist nation before. The 85-year-old statesman made a historic trip to North Korea in 1994 and met with then-leader Kim Il Sung, on a visit that led to a landmark disarmament deal on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
That deal alleviated tensions but fell apart in 2002 after the US accused North Korea of having a secret uranium enrichment program.
Gomes, an English teacher from Boston who had been working in South Korea, was sentenced by North Korea in April to eight years of hard labor and fined the equivalent of US$700,000 for crossing into North Korea illegally.
A North Korean girl with a red scarf tied around her neck handed Carter flowers and saluted him after he landed at the Pyongyang airport in an unmarked plane, footage aired by TV news agency APTN showed. Carter blew her a kiss before getting into a black stretch Mercedes-Benz.
The rare journey to win the release of 31-year-old Aijalon Gomes of Boston comes a year after another ex-US president, Bill Clinton, traveled to North Korea on a private mission to bring home two American journalists also sentenced to prison for sneaking into the country illegally.
It was unclear whether Carter's trip would include a visit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, but Carter shared a warm handshake with the country's No. 2 official, Kim Yong Nam, before they sat down for talks yesterday.
The talks were "cordial," the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.
Top North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan and No. 2 nuclear official Ri Gun were among officials on hand to welcome Carter, according to APTN.
Senior US officials said Carter was not representing the US government but was on a private mission.
North Korea had agreed to release Gomes, who was believed to be in ailing health, to Carter if the ex-president paid a visit, a senior US official said. Carter was expected to spend one night in North Korea and return home with Gomes today.
Carter visited the communist nation before. The 85-year-old statesman made a historic trip to North Korea in 1994 and met with then-leader Kim Il Sung, on a visit that led to a landmark disarmament deal on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
That deal alleviated tensions but fell apart in 2002 after the US accused North Korea of having a secret uranium enrichment program.
Gomes, an English teacher from Boston who had been working in South Korea, was sentenced by North Korea in April to eight years of hard labor and fined the equivalent of US$700,000 for crossing into North Korea illegally.
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